FCC releases new media rules

Waivers to the Federal Communications Commission’s duopoly restrictionswill apparently be much easier to come by under new broadcast-ownership rules,judging by an initial reading of the formal text released Wednesday.

The new rules, which significantly reduced local-ownership limits, wereapproved June 2, but details have not been available.

The FCC announced last month that the new rules made it easier to owntwo-station TV "duopolies" by replacing the old eight-station voice test with anew rule that simply bans pairings among a market’s four top-rated stations.

The move effectively requires a market to have at least five commercialstations if TV pairs are permitted. The limits also restrict TV "triopolies" tomarkets where there are 18 TV stations.

The FCC had said waivers to the new restrictions would be permitted, butthe criteria were not revealed until Wednesday’s official order.

As with the old restrictions, waivers will be considered if one of thestations has failed, is failing or for an unbuilt construction permit.

Now, however, sellers do not need to demonstrate that an out-of-town buyercould not be found.

Where once the FCC held that an out-of-town buyer was preferable because aseparate voice would remain in the market, the commission now says an in-marketbuyer is the most likely option.

"The efficiencies associated with operation of two same-market stations,absent unusual circumstances, will always result in the buyer being the owner ofanother station in that market," it concluded.

But wait, there’s more: Waivers of limits in markets with fewer than 11stations will also be considered if:

The combined ratings of paired stations "reduce a significant competitivedisparity" between the merged stations and the market’s dominant station.

At least one station is UHF

One of the merged stations could better complete the transition to digitaltransmission.

The owner documents that the merger is needed to preserve a localnewscast.

The buyer certifies that increased news or other public-interestprogramming benefits will result.

Stations’ outer, or "grade-B" signal contours, don’t overlap and are not tothe same geographic areas via cable or satellite TV.

At license-renewal time, the waived stations will have to demonstrate theongoing public-interest benefits of the waiver, including program-relatedbenefits. A simple showing of cost savings will not suffice.

Many broadcasters complained that the top-four restrictions would prohibitduopolies in many small markets where scant ad revenue threatens the financialhealth of nearly every station in the market.

Attorney for those operators were reviewing the order late Wednesday and werenot prepared to say whether the waiver criteria were sufficiently lenient toassuage their worries.

Deregulation opponents renewed their calls for reregulation by Congress.

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) vowed to push for a "legislative veto" that wouldblock implementation of the FCC’s changes.

"These new rules are wrong-headed and will result in more consolidation andless competition in broadcasting," Dorgan said.

FCC commissioner Jonathan Adelstein, one of the two who voted against the changes(Michael Copps was the other), supplemented his June 2 statement with a 39-pageattack.

"Public outrage from all sides of the political spectrum continues to mountagainst the FCC’s decision," Adelstein said. "We’ve now heard from nearly 2million people, almost all opposed to the decision, an unprecedented outpouringof public concern. Yet we march ahead with our new rules. I’m disappointed that my colleagues haverefused to suspend the effective date of the new rules despite the overwhelmingpublic reaction and ongoing congressional deliberations to overturn thedecision."

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